Fresh iPhone Apps for July 13: TiVo update, Above France, Kard Combat, QuBIT

Finally, TiVo’s iOS app has been updated to allow iPhone owners to use the service as well as iPad owners. It leads today’s Fresh iPhone Apps list, along with Above France, a new photo-packed travel app from Fotopedia and National Geographic. Kard Combat leads the day’s game selection, bringing a new card battle game to the App Store, along with QuBIT, a 3-D racing game that has players trying to beat the clock.

TiVo update (iPhone, iPad) Free

Digital video recording service TiVo released an iPad app not long ago that allows users to take control of their DVR boxes from wherever they are. Now, iPhone owners can take control of their TiVo boxes from wherever they are using an Internet connection just like iPad owners can.

TiVo gives users remote control of their boxes for scheduling the recording of programs, but you can also browse the program guide to see what’s on TV, as well as search for shows that don’t appear on the guide to find out when they’ll be playing. You can see upcoming shows up to 14 days in the future, and TiVo lets you scan lots of other services, like Netflix and Amazon Instant Video, to find On Demand programming.

Above France (iPhone, iPad) $0.99

Another journey to an exotic place (if you live in the U.S.) from Fotopedia and National Geographic, Above France is an app filled with photos of the country taken from high above it. It packs more than 2,000 images taken by helicopter by photographer Frank Mulliez, capturing much about the country that many will have never seen before.

Like Nat Geo and Fotopedia’s excursions through other countries such as North Korea and Burma, Above France is packed with high-quality images and lots of information about the locations they cover. The app is on sale for the rest of the week, so snag it now while it’s two dollars cheaper than usual.

Kard Combat (iPhone, iPad) Free (with in-app purchase of $2.99 or $9.99)

As you might guess from the title, Kard Combat is a card-based combat game not unlike real-life games in the same genre, such as Magic: The Gathering or Pokemon. Players take on the roles of magic-manipulating mages, and the cards represent their magical abilities. Each game is a duel between wizards, in which players take turns summoning creatures to fight for them and casting magic spells in an attempt to eliminate all the “lives” of the other player.

Kard Combat is pretty deep and robust, with a single-player campaign mode that takes players through a series of duels as the rise up a tower, a one-off single duel mode, and an expansive multiplayer mode in which players can use the cards they’ve unlocked to take on others using a Wi-Fi connection. The game is free to download, with several options for in-app purchases that unlock the single-player campaign for one of the several mage types, the full game for $2.99, or every card and game mode for $9.99 for hardcore multiplayer fans.

QuBIT (iPhone, iPad) $0.99

QuBIT is something of a 3-D racing game, controlled by tilting your iDevice back and forth to steer. Players don’t take on anything but the clock, however. As a QuBIT robot, your goal is to collect special crystals from the surface of an alien planet. The robot continually drives forward, requiring players to steer into the crystals to gather them. In each level, the robot has special containers for gathering crystals of each type – once you gather one color of crystals, it’s time to gather another before time runs out.

Filling up all your robots colored crystal catchers refills its energy and counts toward a quota for the stage. The faster you can gather up crystals without crashing into stuff, the higher your score and the farther you’ll advance through the game. But take too long and you’ll fail. QuBIT includes Game Center support, so you’ll be able to see how your scores stack up against other players’.

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